Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
What Software Tools Do You Need?
This chapter kicks things off by explaining how to set up your environment to compile hybrid (C/Java)
games. This includes the development IDE (Eclipse) and the Android SDK, which are the tools required
to build any basic Android application. This information is critical if you wish to learn how to combine
the elegant object-oriented features of Java with the raw power of C for maximum performance, and it is
required when we build Doom and Wolfenstein 3D in later chapters.
The following software is assumed to be already installed on your desktop:
•
VMware Player or Workstation
: This is required to run a Linux virtual machine
(VM). VMware is available for free from the VMware download site
(
http://www.vmware.com/products/player/
).
•
Ubuntu Linux VMware appliance
: This is the actual Linux operating system (OS),
where all development will take place. If you don't have it, appliances are available
for download for free from the VMware Virtual Appliance Marketplace
(
http://www.vmware.com/appliances/
). Note that the appliance can be quite large
(600+MB).
•
Eclipse
: This is the development IDE used to create your projects. Version 3.3
(Europa), 3.4 (Ganymende), or 3.5 (Galileo) will do.
•
Android SDK, properly configured
: At the time of this writing, the latest version of
the SDK is 1.6. You'll use the Android Debug Bridge to connect to the device.
Unzip the SDK to your favorite folder. Make sure you add the command-line tools
to the
PATH
of your system. Edit the file
.bashrc
in your home directory, and
modify the
PATH
environment variable:
PATH=[PATH_TO_SDK]/tools:$PATH
. Now you
should be able to start and connect to the emulator from the command line. For a
simple test, open a terminal and type
adb
. You should see the tool's help text on
your screen.
•
Java JDK 5.0 or later
: This is required to run Eclipse and the Android SDK itself.
We'll begin by setting up the Ubuntu VM with the required software. Log in, and let's get started.
Setting Up Your Machine
To set up for building Android games, you need to install three software components on your Linux
desktop:
•
Android source
: This contains the entire Android source code, plus C/C++/JNI
header files used to build custom shared libraries.
•
Android native libraries
: These include things like the C runtime, math, XML,
sound, and other libraries.
•
GNU C/C++ Toolchain for ARM processors
: This toolchain provides a C/C++
compiler and linker required to build native libraries, plus other useful tools, such
as debuggers and profilers to aid in the debugging process.
